Improvement in opera-chairs



IINrrnn STATESPATENT Orrron.

ROBERT MITCHELL, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN OPERA-CHAIRS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 207,764, dated September 3, 1878; application filed March 26, 1878.

To all whom it 'may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT MITCHELL, of the city of Cincinnati, county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Opera and Hall Chairs, of which the following is a specification:

This invention is an improved hall and opera chair.

Heretofore chairs of this class having a folding seat have usually been made of cast-iron. These, in addition to their unwieldiness, are very expensive, owing to the cost of material and labor of fitting the parts together and' nishin g, and they cannot readily be removed and replaced. These defects, added to the fact that they are cold and unpleasant to the touch, render metallic chairs objectionable, while wood chairs, as heretofore constructed, occupied too much space when made sufficiently strong to serve the purpose for which my chair is designed.

The object of my invention` is to provide a hall or auditorium chair that will combine the greatest strength and durability with neatness of design; that may be placed close together in sections without danger of cramping the occupants; that can be readily set up and attached together in sections and taken apar-tto be packed away or for shipment; and that will require little care and no ittin g to put the parts together or replace any that may be lost or broken.

The invention consists in constructing a wooden chair for hall, opera, and other purposes, made up, in the main, of two pairs of divergin g legs, rigidly braced and jointed to gether beneath the seat, and a foldable seat, pivoted at or near its rear edge, the construction being such that the upper ends of the short legs of said pairs of legs terminate on aline about midwaybetween the front and rear edges of the foldable seat when the latter is turned down, so that they may support the scat, and yet not project too far to interfere with the contraction of the depth of the chair provided for by the foldable seat.

In the accompanyingdrawing,in which similar letters of reference indicate like parts, Figure 1 is a perspective view of the chair, the seat being thrown up to show the mode of its attachment to the cross-rod. Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the center. The seat in this view is folded down readyfor use. Fig. 3 is a detached view of the arm and broken section of back rail to which it belongs.

It is evident that the divergence of the legs of the chair may be obtained in different ways. I have shown one form (by crossing the legs) which answers the purpose perhaps betterthan any other, although I do not confine myself to that. In accordance with it the frame of the chair is composed of cross-legs or sides A B, braced and held together at the joint of said legs by cross-piece C and screw-bolt D. Said piece C is perforated longitudinally to allow rod D, which holds the sides together, to pass through it. The brace C and rod D thus serve the purpose of a stay-bolt.

E is the top or back of the chair. It is made preferably of bent wood, and let into the posts A a sufficient distance to secure a firm joint. The legs A and B are held in proper relation to each other by a tic-piece, F, which is cut away at each end upon opposite sides, leaving a shoulder which fits against the adjacent faces of the legs, the overlapping ends of the tie being secured, the one to the outside of leg Band the other to inside of leg A, by screws.

The seat-frame Gris put together in the usual way, and is secured to turn upon cross-rod H by metallic straps I. The arm J has a dovetailed tenon, which enters a corresponding cavity in post A, and is firmly secured in place by screws. A shoulder of the arm, resting against the front face of the post, compensates for any weakness caused by cutting away to receive the arm.

K is a strip or thin board resting upon ties F, to which it is secured by screws from beneath. It serves to` connect several chairs together when used in rows or sections, and also as a hat-shelf or foot-rest. l

L is a cross-piece, which .p is secured on the extensions b of back legs B, its purpose being to furnish a support for the seat when in use, to prevent it from sagging down in the center, and for relieving the seat-frame from the strain consequent upon sustaining the whole weight of the body. By this means I obtain a rigid support for thc base of the springs when such are used in the seat, or for the hair or other elastic stuffing when springs are dispensed with, without the necessity of using a rigid bottom or straining the seat-frame by tightlyst-retched webbing.

.All the parts ofthe chair, being of the simplest construction, may be worked out to a uniform size upon the simplest machinery used in a cabinet-factory, and, as similar parts of all chairs are exactly alike and no tting required after the parts leave the machine, the only tool required to put them together or take them apart is a screw-driver.

If desired, the chairs, instead of being wholly taken apart, maybe but partially disconnected, so as to fold into a small space. This is done by first removing the connecting-strip K and ties F. This permits the legs Aand B to fold together.

I claim- As a new article of manufacture, an operachair constructed substantially as before set forth, namely, with two pairs of diverging legs, rigidly jointed and braced together beneath the seat, and a foldable seat pivoted at or near its rear edge, the upper ends of the short legs of said pairs of legs terminating on a line about midway between the front and rear edges of the foldable seat when turned down, so that, While they project far enough to act as props for the support of a seat, they yet do not project so far as to interfere with the contraction of the depth of the chair effected by folding the seat upward.

ROBERT MITCHELL. W'itnesses:

Gno. J. MURRAY, M. HINCHMAN. 

